Portugal housing protesters return after police clear Lisbon and Porto camps

Housing protesters returned to central squares in Lisbon and Porto on Tuesday, 20 October, after Portuguese police cleared their camps in the two cities and detained 55 people. The renewed demonstrations kept pressure on the government over a housing bill that activists say would make evictions easier and end rent caps on new leases.

Police moved shortly before 6 a.m. local time, after warning protesters that the camps were illegal. The 55 people detained were later released pending a court appearance in Lisbon on Wednesday, 21 October, Al Jazeera and Deutsche Welle reported.

Protesters return to Rossio and Dom Joao I squares

In Porto, demonstrators dismantled their tents after police ordered them to leave. In Lisbon, officers cleared the square while protesters formed a human chain, according to DW. The broadcaster reported that authorities seized 228 camping structures and that clashes broke out in Lisbon after the clearance, citing footage shown by local television stations.

Carla Valadao, a spokesperson for the Lisbon camp, called the police operation ‘very aggressive’. Public Security Police superintendent Sergio Soares disputed that description, telling reporters it had been ‘calm, proportionate and appropriate, with no police charge’. The accounts differ over how officers handled the clearance.

Why the protesters oppose the housing bill

Activists want the centre-right government to withdraw a bill that would make evictions easier and remove rent caps on new leases. It has passed a first parliamentary reading. Portugal’s housing costs have risen sharply: purchase prices have more than doubled since 2017, while rents for new leases have nearly doubled over that period, according to the two reports.

Debora Miranda, a 41-year-old communications consultant at the Rossio protest, told Reuters she had joined to represent generations struggling with rising costs. ‘If people don’t feel at home, in every sense of the word, they can’t move forward with their lives…enough is enough,’ she said. History student Jorge Paixao, 19, called the housing squeeze ‘a societal crisis’ and said his generation needed the ability to live with dignity and start families.

Lisbon demonstrators sought to rebuild their sit-in camp after Tuesday’s clearance. DW reported that protesters voted by a show of hands to re-establish it on Wednesday, 21 October. Whether they succeeded was not immediately clear.